General

Week 15 NFL Announcing: Dreaming of a White Sunday

Dec 18, 2009, 2:50 PM UTC

â†µChristmas is just a week away and already the rumors of potential snow on Christmas Eve have begun to slip out of the mouths of every meteorologist in every cold-weather city on the East Coast. Dreaming of a white Christmas…even those who don’t celebrate the holiday get caught up on the nostalgia of that hope. And invariably, the report ends up being nothing more than a tease from the local weather people trying to get some more airtime leading up to the holiday. â†µ

â†µâ†µChristmas; the one day a year we wish we lived in Rochester. â†µ

â†µâ†µBut this weekend might provide those on the East Coast something better than a white Christmas. We might be getting a white Sunday, and nothing – nothing – is better to watch than NFL football being played in the snow. The more snow the better. Sure the pace of play is slowed, scoring usually is limited, the game plans have to change immensely and if you have a fantasy quarterback or receiver in a snow game, I hope you enjoyed your brief stay in the playoffs. Sure is fun to watch, though. â†µ

â†µâ†µThere’s something so innocent about football in the snow, probably because we all remember our 10-year-old selves spending 30 minutes getting bundled up to trudge through six-inch deep snow banks until we got to our local park with our friends to play 15 minutes of football before we realized it’s impossible to run in these boots our moms made us wear so the game just turned into a giant snowball fight where, let’s face it, every team wins.â†µ

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â†µâ†µWeather reports have the first real snowstorm of the year hitting the East Coast this weekend, with the bulk of it coming Friday night and into Saturday. If the football Gods are reading – that’d be neat for pageviews – here’s hoping it holds off until, or at least continues through, Sunday with games being played in New York (Jets), Philadelphia and Baltimore. Pittsburgh and Buffalo are hosting games as well, so there’s ample opportunity for a football winter wonderland on the East Coast. â†µ

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â†µCBSâ†µ
â†µCBS has six games on the schedule this weekend with four coming in the early slot and two in the late. Clearly all eyes will be on San Diego hosting Cincinnati, not just for playoff ramifications but also for how the Bengals respond after losing a teammate in Chris Henry. Jim Nantz – who always handles these situations with respect and professionalism – and Phil Simms will be on the call. Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker get the other late game as Oakland travels to Denver.â†µ

â†µâ†µIn the early games for CBS, Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf will call New England at Buffalo, Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts get Miami at Tennessee, Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots will work Houston at St. Louis and Ian Eagle and Rich Gannon will do Cleveland at Kansas City. â†µ

â†µâ†µFOX
â†µFOX has six games on Sunday as well, with four in the early slot and two late. The early schedule has Dick Stockton and Trent Green calling Atlanta at the Jets, Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan calling Arizona at Detroit, Kenny Moose and Goose working San Fran at Philly and Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick doing Chicago at Baltimore. With Baltimore set to get the most snow and Billick going back to his old stomping grounds to work a game in the booth, that should be the game to watch this weekend. â†µ

â†µâ†µThe late games have Joe Buck and Troy Aikman calling Green Bay at Pittsburgh while Ron Pitts and John Lynch get Tampa Bay at Seattle. â†µ

â†µâ†µUPDATE: So, the Chicago-Baltimore gave has been moved to the 4 p.m. slot, throwing those maps we link to into complete and total chaos. No word on udpates there just yet, but hopefully they’ll be updated soon.â†µ

â†µâ†µUPDATE No. 2: The 49ers-Eagles game has been pushed back to 4:15. More scheduling hilarity is about to ensue.
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â†µâ†µNational Games
â†µIf the second of the two games on NFL Network this weekend is as good as the first, the network will be pretty pleased. The Colts escaped Jacksonville undefeated and now the Saints, hosting Dallas, will see if they can do the same. Bob Papa and Matt Millen had the Thursday call, and I believe are slated to call the Saturday night game as well. The Vikings travel to the Panthers for the Sunday night game with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth on the call while the Giants travel to Washington for Monday Night Football with Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden. â†µ

â†µâ†µMap links and announce crew pairings courtesy of The 506.â†µ

â†µâ†µHanukkah ends tonight and Christmas week officially begins – oh, forgot that Christmas week is actually 12 days. Well, anyway, it’s a festive time of year, and the only thing that’ll make it more festive (at least around the east coast)... snow. â†µ
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